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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27910885">The Joy of Baking</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth'>Amrynth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baking, Critmas Exchange, Established Relationship, M/M, married wizards</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:54:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27910885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Essek is going to make cupcakes for Jester's birthday.  He's one of the most powerful wizards in the Dynasty and how hard can baking be?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Critmas Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Joy of Baking</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemainofthewater/gifts">Nemainofthewater</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the Critmas Exchange 2020!  I went for the ultimate fluff.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There wasn’t really a night or day in Rosohna, but most of its residents had an internal clock dictated by the movements of the stars.  Caleb had a tendency to get up at the same time most mornings, his internal clock was impeccable.  So it was always an effort for Essek to turn his sense of time forward enough to get up before him.  It did, however, mean that when he was awake first, he could lay in bed and watch his husband sleep.  Not for too long.  But just long enough he could wonder what sort of dreams he saw.  </p><p>He moved slow, stretching as he extracted himself from the blankets and one outflung limb of Caleb’s.  </p><p>“Frumpkin.  Come here, little one.”  He bent down, scooping the cat up from his enchanted, warm bed near the foot of their shared one.  </p><p>Like his master, Frumpkin was a bit more grey around the edges than he had been when they first met.  Where Frumpkin had once been sleek and elegant, the ends of his ears were a bit grey and his muzzle shot through with white.  At present he was looking disgruntled at being disturbed from sleeping, sleepily blinking golden eyes at Essek.  </p><p>“Here, take my place and keep him sleeping,” Essek said, amused by how expressive Caleb’s familiar could be with just the angle of his ears.  </p><p>As soon as he was placed into the warm, empty space where Essek had been, Frumpkin was immediately soothed.  He oozed into the warm gap, fluid and boneless as only a cat could be.  Essek gave him a scritch between the ears and got to his feet, leaving the two of them to sleep.  </p><p>Once dressed, wrapped in something warm and stylish (this season it was warm colors and Essek had deigned to warm his palette up with gold and rich, warm grey, embracing the new cuts that accented a narrow waist thank you but always flowy, a man was allowed to have some vices still) but practical for work, Essek started tea for his husband.  He hummed as he put the kettle on, then thumbed through the recipe book he’d picked up that week.  </p><p>“I thought maybe my husband had turned into a cat.”  Caleb was far less dressed when he wandered down into the kitchen, wearing a soft robe and slippers to ward off the cold.  Frumpkin trailed along in his wake, looking pleased with himself.</p><p>Essek laughed, looking up from the book.  He’d almost picked a recipe, two fingers tucked in to save options.  “Would that be so bad?  You could order me about, stroke my belly.”</p><p>“I do both of those things already,” he answered, warming into Essek’s good mood.  “What are you up to this morning?”</p><p>Before answering, Essek marked the pages he was saving with a ribbon and set his book down to bring the tea over to Caleb.  “Toast?”  </p><p>“You are up to toast?” Caleb grinned when he asked this.  “Yes, please.”</p><p>“I am picking a recipe for cupcakes,” Essek said, with the air of someone giving a big revelation.  </p><p>Caleb blinked at him, warming his hands on his mug.  “Oh.  Who are we trying to kill?”</p><p>“Brave words for a man letting his husband cut toast for him,” answered Essek, laughing slightly.  “How hard can it be?  Jester’s birthday is tomorrow, as she reminded us last night.  And baking is just chemistry.  I thought she would like something made with love.”</p><p>“Mmm.  Well.  I have a spell I am working on, so if you need me I will be up in the workroom,” Caleb said after taking a sip of tea.  “After breakfast of course.”  </p><p>“Is that doubt I hear?”</p><p>“Never,” Caleb answered mildly, setting his mug down.  “You, my love, are more than capable of anything you set yourself to.”</p><p>Breakfast passed pleasantly in such company, lingering touches and talking about nothing in particular.  Caleb mentioned the spell he was working on, happy to get into the intricacies of what the enchantment was meant to do and Essek was charmed listening to him.  </p><p>“You are certain you want to stay down here and bake?” he asked, tracing the lines in the palm of Essek’s hand while he spoke.  </p><p>“You are very tempting, as is the invitation.  How difficult can baking cupcakes be?”</p><p>As it turned out, very.  Through the morning Caleb came down to check on Essek, appearing in the kitchen for a glass of water, a refill on his tea.  The first time he stepped in, there was flour scattered on both the counter and his husband.  Caleb enjoyed tying an apron around Essek, leaving a few kiss-shaped marks in the flour on his throat and cheek before disappearing again.  The second batch burned and Essek wasn’t admitting to what had happened to the first.  His optimism became stony and Caleb left Frumpkin in the hallway to alert him if anything went particularly wrong.</p><p>He didn’t need Frumpkin to come trotting up the stairs to fetch him to know when the kitchen had a mild accident.  Caleb felt it through the floor and looked down in mild surprise.  He’d known the cupcake effort was proving frustrating for his prodigy of a husband, but sometimes a little humbling was good for Essek.  But he picked up the more volatile components he’d been working with and started toward the kitchen just in time for Frumpkin to arrive.  </p><p>Frumpkin brought images of flour everywhere, cursing and smoke from the oven.  Essek was in the center of all of these and Caleb slowed just long enough to scoop the cat into his arms on the way down.  </p><p>“Essek?”</p><p>“It’s fine.  Everything’s fine,” came the answer far too quickly.  </p><p>Caleb came around the corner and hefted Frumpkin slightly higher to muffle the softest laugh.  The kitchen, so idyllic that morning, had been transformed into a flour-covered battlefield.  From an outside perspective it was funny, but it was unfair to laugh at Essek when he’d finally found the one thing he wasn’t innately good at.  Not until later when the initial frustration had worn off.  </p><p>“What seems to be the problem?” Caleb asked, noting the small cat footprints in the flour that wound around where the center of the explosion seemed to be.  “Did you burn yourself?”  </p><p>Essek looked flustered, which was unlike him.  His sleek hair stuck up at angles and perhaps had a bit of egg yolk near his ear.  Even with the apron on, he was simply covered in flour.  Seeing Caleb, Essek took a slow breath and tried to find some sort of center or balance inside himself.  </p><p>“No.  I didn’t burn myself,” he said, looking down at his hands.  He struggled to search for what was wrong, to put it into words.  Rather than admit he couldn’t bake, he struck on something tangible in the room.  “Everything is fine.  The problem is that we’re out of eggs.”</p><p>“Ah yes, that does happen,” Caleb said, still trying very hard not to laugh.  “But that can be solved.  Will you walk to the market with me?”</p><p>A tempestuous frown darkened Essek’s face briefly, but then he looked at Caleb with his half-smile and Frumpkin watching him.  “Alright.  Let me clean up a little before we go out.”</p><p>“Oh ja.  You take your hair and I’ll take the kitchen?” he suggested, finally letting the softest of laughs out.  “Unless this is a new look?”</p><p>Essek ran a hand through his hair and his fingers got stuck on something that was either egg, dough, or glue keeping the strands together.  He flicked his wrist and the flour funneled into the trash, his clothing becoming immaculate once more bit by bit.  Caleb performed a similar motion around Frumpkin, doing the same with the flour scattered around the kitchen.  The oven was no longer smoking at this point and they could worry about it once Essek had cooled himself on the walk to the market.  </p><p>As Caleb had changed into his regular clothing (at least ten years out of date, as Essek liked to tease him, but the high collar coat had all the pockets a wizard could want and what if he found a particularly interesting button to mail to Felderwin?) before going to the workroom, he let Frumpkin down to follow the both of them as all three of them made their way to the market.  Essek walked in silence, lost in his own thoughts and going over the recipe in his head as he tried to puzzle out just what had gone wrong.  Caleb let him deep into his own mind, linking his arm into Essek’s and enjoying the warmth of his arm against his side.  </p><p>“I like when I get to see you like that,” Caleb said, pausing at a storefront to peer in at the books inside.  </p><p>“Mmm?”  Essek looked up from watching where his feet were going and took a moment to process Caleb’s words.  “Frustrated?”  </p><p>“No, not at all.  But where I can see the cracks behind the facade.  When you walk rather than glide and I get to remember that you’re better than perfect.  You’re flawed and you’re mine,” he explained.  The walk had given him a chance to compose his thoughts, hoping they came across in the manner he wanted.  </p><p>Essek breathed a laugh, more at himself and the situation now that his husband had brought him out and allowed him to see it from his perspective.  “I just don’t understand what went wrong with the equations,” he said.</p><p>“I only know how to burn meat over a fire, any of the finer cooking I left to those who had a sense for it.”  Caleb looked up at Essek, smiling when their eyes met.  “But perhaps it is like a complicated spell.  All the elements have to be just right to get the result that you want.”</p><p>“Maybe we should just get cupcakes instead of eggs.”</p><p>Caleb laughed and nudged Essek with his shoulder.  “Now that is the talk of a quitter, I have never known you to quit anything in your life.”  </p><p>It was quiet for a time as they finally reached the market stall with eggs and Essek was torn.  Beside him, Caleb let him consider his options without adding any other pressure.  Jester would not be disappointed in store bought cupcakes but Essek was correct that homemade would make her happier.  </p><p>“Will you help?” Essek finally asked.  </p><p>“Of course,” Caleb answered.  It was difficult enough for Essek to realize he needed help with something, asking for it was a monumental step.  “Pick out your lucky eggs and we shall see if the fates have cupcakes in store for us or not.”</p><p>Once home, they cleared half the kitchen and put Frumpkin out of the way on the counter.  With the familiar supervising, Essek and Caleb laid out their ingredients and instructions on the floor like they would a complicated spell they were trying to work out.  </p><p>“No Frumpkin, stay on the counter, usually you are forbidden so you would think that you would enjoy it.”  Kneeling on the ground with his back to the cat, Caleb just knew when Frumpkin was about to hop down.  Being in the middle of everything had as much appeal as being on the counter, perhaps more.  Besides, how could they do anything without his help?</p><p>“You don’t think a little footprint here and there wouldn’t help?” asked Essek.  Now that baking had entered the familiar, welcome territory of working out a spell with Caleb he was smiling again.</p><p>“Let me check the recipe.  No, no it does not say that the cupcakes are improved with the help of a familiar who licks his own butthole.”</p><p>This made Essek laugh and it was entirely worth it for the stupid joke.  With fresh eggs and renewed spirit, Essek and Caleb were able to turn out acceptable cupcakes.  Essek suggested replacing them with something from the store when the decorating went a bit awry, but Caleb quieted him with a soft kiss and told him he loved the cupcakes.  </p><p>Travelling to Jester was simple enough, stepping through a small portal to where she was with Frumpkin leading the way.  </p><p>“Oh Essek, I love them.  They look just like a unicorn poop, how did you know?”</p>
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